Nunes: Trump communications collected by U.S. Intelligence during transition

Posted: 1:30 pm Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017

By Jamie Dupree

The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee told reporters Wednesday that he has been given evidence from inside the U.S. Intelligence Community, which shows that personal communications of President Trump were collected during the Presidential transition as part of legally approved foreign intelligence surveillance operations.

“It looks to me like it was all legally collected, but it was essentially a lot of information on the President-Elect and his transition team and what they were doing,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) told reporters at a news conference in the Capitol.

Nunes would not detail how the information was obtained – it is known as “incidental collection,” where an American citizen unknowingly speaks with someone who is under surveillance by U.S. intelligence.

“From what I’ve seen, it appears to be incidental collection,” Nunes stressed, meaning that Mr. Trump himself was not the target of the surveillance.